Ride - Deluxe Evac

"Evac is used to dodging laser fire. His entire life, Decepticons have gotten in his way, and tried to stop him. They've never succeeded. No matter how overwhelming their attack, Evac knows that with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee covering him, nothing will stop him from delivering his passengers safely."

Name: Evac

Faction: Autobot

Continuity: Live Action Movies (I think)

Toy Line: Universal Studios - The Ride

Size Class: Deluxe

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 5

Speed: 9

Endurance: 4

Rank: 5

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 5

Skill: 8

Robot Mode

Evac's robot mode is mostly grey with some silver, black and blue. His visible vehicle mode parts form blue armour plates for him on his chest, shoulders and backpack. His body-type is quite a common one for a car-based Transformer, in that his hood is now his chest, his wheels are found in his shoulders and legs and a large chunk of the vehicle is now on his back.

His torso section's most prominent feature is his vehicle mode hood forming the chest, and his abdominal area featuring a faux-part of his rear thruster (the real thruster is under his head). The rest of the abdominal area is made up of sculpted vehicle parts. An interesting part of this area is his abdominal blasters, which can be folded up/down manually to give him some sort of weapon (since his gun from the prototype has been removed).

The only other thing really to note about his torso section is his backpack, which can be folded out (as shown in my pictures) to give him a sort of cloak or wings.

His head is connected to the top of the torso by a ball joint from what was his vehcile mode thruster that allows the head all sorts of rotational points. The head is silver with a blue helmet and yellow eyes and rear of the head. The face is sculpted with details like a nose, mouth, chin and some definition marks (like on most Movie-based figures).

His upper arms are connected to the tops of the torso by ball joint connectors, leading to his shoulders (which include his rear wheels). The shoulder parts are connected to the main upper arm by a pivoting joint. leading to a hinge-based embow. The rest of the lower arm features no further articulation, but the hands are sculpted to feature a standard sized peg hole, so you can give him someone else's gun if you want to arm the poor fella. Saying that, his arms do feature some arm-mounted lasers (or blow torches or something), but they're just for decoration really. His arms also feature some C-Joints on his mounted cannon-thing and shoulders.

His legs are connected to the torso by his groin area with ball joint connector again, giving it just as much articulation as the arms. His legs should have a pivoting joint just below the tops of them, but due to the placement of the wheels, they cannot actually move. His knees are made up on a hinge joint, leading to his lower legs. His feet are also on a hinge joint of sorts, but i'm not really sure why, it doesn't help with articulation, posing or in his vehicle mode either...it's just there.

The bottoms of his lower legs feature a panel from his vehicle mode on each side, which gives him a winged-foot appearance (ala Hermes from Greek Mythology) possibly giving the impression that he's fast.

Vehicle Mode

Evac turns into (according to his card back) a Supercar, based on the car used in the Universal Studios Ride. This mode is mostly blue with green patterns along the sides, and a silver Autobot insignia on either side. Under his black, translucent canopy, you can see a set of four seats (for his passengers to sit in), which has some nice sculpted details in it, but sadly is inaccessible, as it's pinned shut. The rest of the car mode is mostly sculpted details, like paneling, side mirrors etc. This mode also features a set of four working wheels, which, as to be expected in this age of toy making, are fully able to roll along a smooth surface.

Items of note in this mode's sculpting include his front grill's small gun (helpful for shooting Decepticon's in the shins), his rear thruster (for quick escapes), and a set of small (non-working) lights on his hood, painted with some yellow paint (yet the main headlights are left unpainted, next to them).

One interesting point in this mode, is that Evac still features a small hole on the top of his canopy where his gun (seen in the prototype images) would have gone.

My Final Thoughts

People who know me, know I've been after this figure for some time now, I found him at Auto Assembly this year for £30 and I of course picked him up, and I have not been disappointed so far! He's basically a more advanced version of his Legion class toy (as you'd expect of course) but with some more features and details.

As mentioned a couple of times in my actual review, Evac was supposed to come with a gun originally, but it was removed, most likely at the last minute for some reason as the toy still features the peg hole for it in vehicle mode, and his profile image on the front of the toy's packaging still shows the gun over his shoulder as well. Despite this apparent last minute change, the figure still doesn't disappoint me :)

Something of note about this figure that I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice, is that he looks quite a lot like G1 Skids, as such, if Skids was not about to receive a new Generations toy soon anyway, I;d have said you could just put him on your Generations G1 shelf as him as well!

All in all, I think this toy is great, he was well worth the wait in the end, and sits happily on my shelf with the rest of my "favourites". The one problem with the figure really is that he's so hard to get, the only "legitimate" way is to get it from the Ride's store at Universal Studios, which of course for me would be too expensive, so I'd probably suggest that everyone just buy him the same way I did, on the aftermarket for a much lower price (you know, compared to buying a plane ticket, ticket into the park, paying the store's prices etc)

TFCC - Depth Charge

"Magnificently sweeping through the darkness with regal silence, a hunter trails his prey. Defender, pursuer, and if need be, judge; Depth Charge acts swiftly and with unquestioning resolve. He holds tightly to a desire for justice, even if he dispenses that justice himself.

After tracking down and incarcerating the murderous Protoform X, Depth Charge returned to a Cybertron torn apart by war. Aging masters forced the next generation of soldiers into battle in the name of "The Cause". Death haunted every street. Injustice abounded. Depth Charge was tasked with a mission to hunt down two deserters from the Maximal ranks who had dispatched their commanding officer, and consorted with the enemy in an attempt to use experimental transwarp drive technology to flee the planet. Retracing their steps with his own transwarp device, the Maximal soon found their escape route. It was not to another planet, but to another Universe: one which the Transtech call home."

Name: Depth Charge

Quote: "It's not revenge I'm looking for. It's justice."

Toy Line: Timelines

Continuity: Beast Era

Faction: Maximal

Function: Maximal Bounty Hunter

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 10

Speed: 8 

Endurance: 9

Rank: 7

Courage: 10

Fireblast: 6

Skill: 9

Robot Mode

Depth Charge's robot mode is..well it's very colourful! He has about equal amounts of grey, blue and pink parts, plus with some yellow to break it up a bit. and features a lot of pieces of circuit detailing, and left over parts from his vehicle mode visible.

The torso of this fine fella is made mostly by the cockpit and nose of his vehicle mode, and filled in by his forward wing-fin thingies giving him a nice triangular chest look. His abdominal area features his cockpit behinda canopy type area, which sort of resembles the abdominal area of Unicron (though much, MUCH smller). His Maximal insignia is located in the center of his chest. On the back of his torso are his rear vehicle mode fins, which appear here as wings (ala, the Seekers etc) and also features a small connector on his very back that can be used to hold his spear (though I personally use the other connector more - will mention later)

His head is connected to the main torso by a ball joint connector, allowing him all head-based motion as desired. The head is sculpted with a small face-plate and a very pointy helmet on top, the rear of the helmet also features a light-piping port that gives his red eyes a glowing effect.

The arms are connected to the torso by pivoting joints, leading to a hinge into the upper arms, which feature a pivot joint up the top, and two hinges forming the elbows. The lower arms feature no additional articulation, except at the wrists, which can rotate fully. All these articulation points give Depth charge a very good range of movement (handy for a trident-using bounty hunter huh?) His hands are sculpted into an set of 4 fingers molded together and a thumb in a semi-open hand position, which allows him to hold his spear (at the larger points) and any other similarly sized weapons.

His left shoulder features a moving connector on the outside that can be used to hold his spear-trident as a storage space, rather than using the one on his back (this is my prefered method)

His legs are connected to the groin area of the torso by ball joints that lead to a pivoting joint, giving him great posing ability. His knees are made from a simple hinge joint that is hidden from the front by his kneecap decoration. His feet are connected by a couple of hinges that also enable you to reposition the feet depending on the surface, as needed. His wings are located on the bottom of his lower legs too, also giving some additional support points if needed.

Vehicle Mode

Depth Charge's alternate mode is a lovely looking bright blue fighter jet with forward pointing wings. The jet also features some grey pieces and pink and yellow paint apps, emulating the patterns seen on the original Beast Wars Depth Charge too.

This mode features retractable landing wheels allowing him to be displayed in vehicle mode, and still be stable. The rest of the vehicle mode is simply decorative and has no other hidden features (not that that's a bad thing, he still looks pretty). These decorative parts include thrusters, cockpit and simple panelling detail.

His spear accessory is able to clip to the undercarriage by a moving clip, and a single gap on the part that hides his robot head

Accessories

Depth Charge comes with his spear weapon which can turn from the smaller spear into a long trident-like weapon by simple unfolding the stick, and moving the spear-head, revealing his prongs. If your's is like mine however and is a bit wonky, and the spear-head doesn't work too easily, you can still position it manually with some minimal effort.

My Final Thoughts

Oh Depth Charge, I didn't think I'd like you, but I do. His vehicle mode is beautiful (I'm a sucker for the Terradive mold as it is), your robot mode is painted well, and both modes do well to emulate the original, which not making him look stupid (like painting random eyes somewhere etc).

My only real issue with this toy in terms of it's design is that his counterpart, Protoform X won't be out for another year, meaning he'll be bored and lonely for all that time!

Besides any other small issues I've had (as mentioned in the review itself) I'd say this is a great figure, and can easily go with several other previous toys to make a pre-Earth Beast Era cast shelf (such as Chromia-10 Pilot, DOTM Dark Steel etc)

So yeah, in terms of fun, and general appearances, I'd say this was a very worthwhile figure to get, and I'm glad I renewed my membership for this year, and glad I have a reason to for next year as well (Protoform X)

DOTM - Wheeljack

Name: Wheeljack

Faction: Autobot

Continuity: Live Action Movies

Toy Line: Dark of the Moon

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 9

Speed: 8

Endurance: 6

Rank: 8

Courage: 9

Fireblast: 5

Skill: 10

Robot Mode

Wheeljack's robot mode, I have to say, is one of my favourite Movie-figure designs, he has a good symmetrical look, has all his limbs, and doesn't look too generic. His body is mostly grey with his blue car-parts being incorporated as body armour, and also featuring some gold, silver and light blue parts for highlighting.

Wheeljack's torso is one big lump of plastic that seems to be molded to look like his engine parts and also features his car-mode hood on his back (the hood part also features a clip so you can keep his spear latched onto his back too). Wheeljack's right-hand chest plate features his Autobot insignia. His chest also features 2 clips that can hold 2 C-Joint connected things (designed for his power tools, but you can put anything that'll fit in there if you want)

His head is connected to the torso by a small ball-joint connector that gives it some articulation. The head itself is sculpted with his screen-counterpart's famed features (spectacles, moustache, eyebrows etc). The sides of his head feature some wire-hair light piping ports that work as an alternative to the head-fins used by his G1 counterpart. The top of his head is noticeably large, most likely denoting his greater intelligence than most others.

Wheeljack's arms are connected to his torso by a ball-joint connector taht allows him quite some articulation in his shoulder area. In order to hide his ugly shoulder connector however he has his vehicle mode headlights and front doors to the car. His upper arm sections also feature his front wheels at the elbow points. The upper arm is connected to the elbow part by a rotating joint that leads to a connecting joint to enable his arms to flex and turn as needed. His lower arms are single pieces which feature sculpted mechanical details, peg holes on their outer fore arms (to hold some MechTech weapons if desired, and culminate in his hands with sculpted open fingers, surrounding a hidden peg hole for his weapons and tool box to go into

His groin is connected to the bottom of his torso by a pivoting joint that allows it to rotate fully, His legs are connected to his groin at the sides by connectors with ball joints that again allows them full articulation. The upper legs also feature some pivoting joints in the middle for a bit mode posing potential, but this is mostly hidden by his leg-decoration. The upper legs also feature some side-panels with his vehicle mode rear wheels attached. His knees are simple joints that allow them to bend back or forth as needed (unlike real knees of course). The backs of the knees also feature the rear parts of his vehicle mode, so you may need to re-position the rear-parts for bending backwards, otherwise there may be tears. His lower legs are made of most of the roof and rear of his vehicle mode, but folded out. The windscreen is used in this mode as a type of back-support as well, giving him some good balance too, along with his wide-enough feet (so basically he shouldn't fall over too much)

Vehicle Mode

Wheeljack turns into a blue Mercedes-Benz E550, or in other words, a thing of beauty, he has tinted black windows that hides all the robot bits inside and, being licensed, he is detailed with all the things you'd expect to find on the exterior of this make of car, including the badges, headlights, door handles, license plate area, and rolling wheels with silver rims and 5-pointed star hubs. The roof of the car mode features 2 push-down holes for the tool-box (or any other MechTech weapon) to be inserted into, and yeah, why wouldn't you want to put a giant green toolbox on top of a beautiful blue car? 

Accessories 

Wheeljack comes with four accessories, a spear and two guns/power tools that feature C-Clips to connect to his various connection points, giving him the look of just having all his equipment hooked onto him at all times. He also features a tool box with 3 legs to stand on, and a hand (which of course fits into his hands). This toolbox also features a gimmick, where you push on a button at the back to release a briefly spinning buzzsaw, so you know, he can saw up any pesky Decepticons and humans who get in the way of his building work!

My Thoughts

As you may be able to tell from the review itself, I love this figure, he looks great in both modes, he's very screen accurate, comes with some great accessories, and is just great as a figure in terms of play-value in general.

My only real gripe with this figure in terms of design is the legs...they are extremely fiddly to transform, and just one missed step can mean it won't transform properly, and you end up with a vehicle with a weird roof, or a robot with balancing issues. So, just make sure you read the instructions for how to transform the legs properly a few times, but the rest is pretty easy.

The only other issue I possibly have with this figure is the availability. He was a main character in Dark of the Moon, but like several others, his toy was cancelled last minute, meaning he wasn't released in the west, and has to be bought by the fans from Takara, or the Hasbro Asia market (mine came from the magical land of Ebay). Still I guess it's great he got a proper toy still, unlike poor old Mirage/Dino.

All in all though, I think this is a great figure, and would urge anyone who likes the Movie toys/characters to buy this awesome fella :)

Transformers - Evac

Information

"Blistering speed and lightning-fast reflexes make Evac more than an effective courier - they make him a frighteningly powerful warrior. His speed often catches Decepticons by surprise, allowing him to strike and move before they can return fire."

Name: Evac

Toy Line: Prime (sort of, it's that packaging, but no line identifiers other than that)

Size Class: Cyberverse Legion

Faction: Autobot

Function: Commando

Strength: 7

Intelligence: 8

Speed: 7

Endurance: 9

Rank: 5

Courage: 10

Fireblast: 5

Skill: 8

Robot Mode

Evac's robot mode is quite nice actually, he's mostly blue with black upper-legs and silver inner-lower-legs and lower torso. His upper arms also feature some red between the "elbow" and shoulder.

His torso is made from his vehicle mode hood and what looks like is supposed to be his engine (it's actually some faux-parts that form the undercarriage in vehicle mode). His chest features his three grill-guns in the center, giving him, yes - boob guns with his Auotbot insignia set just above. His windscreen is left on his back to act as a back-packof sorts. His head is sculpted with a basic helmet covering his silver face, which features light blue optics.

His arms are connected with his torso by a hinge=ball joint combination that also gives the arms it's sole point of articulation (hey, he's a legion toy!). The arms themselves are scuplpted with some fine details, and hands with peg holes sized for his aupplied weapon.

His legs are connected to his torso by the ball joints in his groin, his knees feature a hinge that is only there because it's also needed for the transformation (I'd assume). They are of course sculpted with some details you'd expect, including his feet, which allow him to freely stand with some ease.

As well as the peg holes in the hands, you can mount legion weapons in one of the four peg holes in the lower legs and upper arms.

Vehicle Mode

Evac's vehicle mode is a mostly blue covered-canopy rocket powered buggy. It's apparently based on the cart you ride in on the Transformers: The Ride attraction, but as I've never been on it, I don't know myself. His windscreen is black and is elongated to also act as a "sunroof"of sorts. The rocket on his rear is silver and he also features a set of four rotating black wheels.

His form is sculpted with various cosmetic details including vents and even some guns out of his front grill. His Autobot insignia is located at the very front of this mode, just above the gun-laden grill. This mode features four peg holes for the supplied red blaster weapon (and any other legion weapon) to be mounted into

My Thoughts

My thoughts on this figure? Yikes, he's one of my favourites :) 

One reason I like this toy so much is because of how good he looks in both of his modes, his vehicle mode is just a cool rocket powered buggy, whilst his robot mode is well-rounded and well designed...it also helps that he's in my favourite colour, blue! Of course, since he's a Cyberverse toy, he can also be used in any of the Cyberverse playsets or vehicles, giving him extra levels of fun.

One of the most interesting things to note about this toy is that no-one is quite sure where he's supposed to be put. He was originally meant to be in the DOTM toy line, but he, along with other legion guys like Mirage were put into the Prime toy line, however he's actually a promotional toy for the Transformers: The Ride attraction, along with his deluxe counterpart (who is annoyingly only available at the ride itself at the moment, which, whilst I am a dedicated collector and fan, I'm not going to go to America just to pick up one toy).

Even though this version's been released in the wide-market I actually have never seen him in physical shops, I found mine on Amazon for a reasonable price, so, yeah...YAY!

I do fully recommend this figure for anyone who likes a nice fun figure, who is easy to Transform, yet still looks fantastic, despite it's size class.

Rescue Bots - Chase the Police-Bot

Name: Chase the Police-Bot

Toy Line: Rescue Bots Energize

Faction: Autobot

Robot Mode

Okay...well as you must have realized already Chase is a very simple toy (he literally has ONE transformation step, you pull back his siren bar in vehicle mode, and that's it! (and the reverse to turn him into his car mode too). As such his robot mode has no articulation, other than being able to make him seem to lean backwards by carefully balancing him that way, but otherwise, none.

His torso is made up of most of his vehicle mode including the windscreen, with his whole front section making his legs and feet. His arms are made from his car doors with hands sticking inwards. The hands feature a peg hole for him to hold his supplied weapon in. His vehicle mode wheels are located on his shoulders and heels. He also features a spotlight and a megaphone on his forearms, which you could pretend are weapons of some sort (but that wouldn't be kid friendly now would it?)

His head is unable to move, but is sculpted to look like a helmeted police officer with sunshades (like kinda TFA Prowl), he also has a happy little smile (which is sort of out of character, but whatever). His vehicle mode siren bar (and transformation lever) is located behind his head in his mode.

Chase also features 2 Autobot insignia's, one on his helmet and one more stylized one on his chest. Chase features a lot of clear blue plastic, which is no doubt a part of the "Energize" theme, he also comes with a very terrible looking blue  claw weapon.

Alternate Mode

Chase's vehicle mode is a very adorable squashed up police blue and white car with yellow windows. He features quite a bit of sculpted detailing like lights, vents etc, and also features a set of rotating wheels to allow him to roll out on a smooth surface very nicely. You can plug his claw weapon into his hood via 2 peg holes, but it doesn't look very good (like at all)

My Final Thoughts

Hmm...this is a difficult one, as a Transformers toy I'm sort of disappointed with Chase (and the Rescue Bots in general) due to them being very simplistic, and also due to them only having a passing resemblance to their fictional counterparts, however since this toy line is aimed towards very young children, and therefore needs to be simple, I guess it NEEDS to be simple.

I'll be honest here, if you're just a collector like me, then you should get this toy, just so you have the character of Aligned Chase for your collection, but if you want a toy that's fun to play with (and you know, puling a lever a few hundred times isn't enough for you) then you may want to pass up on this toy, or the rest of the Rescue Bots. Let's just hope he gets a more impressive toy in the Prime or Generations line!

Prime - Starscream

"Starscream hasn't survived this long simply by running away every time he might lose a fight. Every retreat is a calculated risk, designed to fulfill a greater purpose. It is often when his enemies believe they are winning that Starscream turns and finishes them off."

Name: Starscream

Faction: Decepticon

Toy Line: Prime - Robots in Disguise

Continuity: Aligned

Size Class: Voyager Powerizers

Strength: 8

Intelligence: 7

Speed: 9

Endurance: 6

Rank: 9

Courage: 3

Fireblast: 9

Skill: 10

Robot Mode

Starscream utilizes a very slender, but still masculine robot mode with mostly grey-scale, silver and black paint applied. His body also features some smaller details in different colours, such as the red eyes on his chest, translucent purple lower arms and blue detailings. 

Starscream's torso is mostly formed from parts hidden in the vehicle mode, so it has sculpted details for his abdominal area etc. His chest is formed from a part of the very top of his jet mode which is reconfigured to (oddly) resemble his Movie incarnation's face (somewhat). This groin area is formed at a hinge that is always slightly open, which gives him a bit of a haunched, submissive look (perfect for Starscream).

The bulk of his jet mode is found of his back, which of course includes his wings, which are now a custom for Starscream to wear as wings in robot mode.

Starscream's head is connected on a small connector with a ball joint, allowing the head to move as needed )and so you can give him a creepy expression if desired). The head itself is mostly Starscream's angular face with prolonged chin, a sinister smirk and a pair of red optics (which are not able to light up). The upper part of his head is a skull-cap of sorts with ridges and side horns protruding from the sides. The helmet has a horn that pokes out the front, giving him some unicorn goodness as well.

Starscream's arms are connected to the upper torso by a connector-ball joint combination that allows them to move as needed. The shoulder's are covered by a larger piece to give them some decoration, rather than just being rounded shoulders. His upper arms feature a pivoting joint just under the shoulder piece that rotates fully, his elbows are formed by a hinge between the upper and lower arms that allows them to fold inwards fully. His hands are connected by a pivoting joint, so they can rotate 360 degrees, but can also fold inwards very slightly on a ball joint, but not much, the hands are also sculpted with long, sharp fingers that form around a hidden peg hole (but the weapon supplied seems too heavy for him to really hold anyway). His lower arms also feature a peg hole for his missiles to be held in (unless you'd rather keep them on his wings like I usually do).

Starscream's legs are connected to his groin by a pair of pivoting ball joints that allow them to move as much as needed. His knees are formed by a hinge joint that allows them to bend backwards by about 90 degrees, and are fronted by a long grey thin knee cap each too. The lower legs are very pointy, as they're made of most of the rear of his vehicle mode (the part with the tail fins etc). His feet are just folded out from the vehicle mode and are able to support the weight of the whole body, especially when supported by the rotating thruster, now used as a support strut of sorts (this can be positioned as needed, or desired by the owner)

Alternate Mode

Starscream's vehicle mode is a mostly grey-scale fighter jet with a purple canopy cover and several other smaller colours on some of the sculpted details (ie silver, red, blue, black etc). This mode features several pieces of sculpted detailing, such as a single thruster, paneling, nose cone and other pieces you'd expect from a jet mode.

Starscream comes with a pair of small plastic missiles that can be clipped under his wings to act as make-believe weapons for him

Now, I shouldn't HAVE to say this, but this toy does NOT actually fly! Do not throw it in the air, you will hurt someone (even with the softer plastic on the nose cone)

Starscream comes with a large weapon that can be clipped into either the pegs on the undersides of his wings (next to the missiles) or into the peg hole at the back of the canopy, either way you can pull on the built in "trigger" and turn into into a bladed weapon. This weapon requires you to hold onto it to keep it deployed, and as such it isn't that great (it's certainly terrible in robot mode, which is why I haven't even shown it in this review here).

My Final Thoughts

Starscream's a nice little figure, he looks good in both modes and is well articulated in both forms as well. On top of this he looks fairly screen accurate compared to most other toys in the line. 

The only real issue with Starscream though, is that his limbs feel a bit fragile, especially since you need to manipulate them in transformation. The only other (small) issue is that Starscream essentially towers over most other figures, even Megatron, which in itself seems a bit odd.

This figure is definitely worth getting, I personally got mine in a contest, thus it was free, but I would have been very willing to spend money on this guy :)

Prime - NYCC 2011 Arcee and Bumblebee

"Arcee is an accomplished, street smart and powerful fighter with little patience for those who don't know their way around a battlefield. Luckily, Bumblebee is as skilled as any other warrior in the Autobot army. Set loose on the streets of the big city with their human partners Raf and Jack, they're an unstoppable team in the defense of the planet."

Names: Arcee and Bumblebee (with Jack Darby and Raf Esquivel)

Faction: Autobot

Toy Line: Prime - First Edition (NYCC)

Continuity: Aligned

Arcee

Robot Mode

Arcee's robot mode is a mostly pink and white female form with some silver, black, grey and blue added to break up those colours.

Arcee's torso is made up mostly of her vehicle mode's bulk which includes having her seat as her abdomen, her headlights as her chest and even having the back of her seat as her tail/ass piece. Her windscreen, front wheel and handlebars are set up to just hang from her back behind her neck. Arcee's head is connected by a white neck piece that is connected by a ball joint, giving her the ability to rotate it up-down and side to side as needed. The actual head is made up mostly of a pink decorated helmet, featuring a frame around her face and a forehead chevron, her face is silver with sculpted feminine features like a mouth and thin chin. Her eyes are able to light up a bright blue thanks to her light-piping gimmick activated from the back of her head.

Arcee's arms are connected to the torso by a connector and ball joint combination, at the shoulder, which is hidden by a pink plate made from a side-piece from her vehicle mode. Her arms are very thin and white and features a pivoting joint under the shoulder guard, a pair of hinges to form her elbows as well as having a hinge on her wrist to allow her hands to be bent inwards or out. Her lower arms feature a small hole designed for her blade weapons, her hands are sculpted with thin fingers, but aren't able to hold anything.

Her legs are connected to her groin area by a ball joint that enables them to move as needed. Her knees are made of a hinge joint that is hidden behind a silver knee-plate leading to her lower leg, which is made of quite a large piece of her motorcycle mode's body, which also includes her split-apart rear wheel. Her feet are made up of small pieces of plastic that can only support her weight with the supports behind them (from the wheels)

Vehicle Mode

Arcee's vehicle mode is a pink and white motorcycle with some silver and black pieces and blue translucent windscreen and headlights. Her wheels are fully rotating (as you'd expect from modern toys) and she features several smaller pieces of detailing to make her more convincing.

If you don't have her blades attached like I have above she is able to stay upright by deploying her kickstand.

Accessories

Arcee comes with two pink and silver blades that clip into the round holes on her lower arms giving her an over-sized version of the blades she has in the cartoon. These blades are clipped onto the sides of her vehicle mode through a couple of smaller clips on the underside of the blades.

Bumblebee

Robot Mode

Bumblebee's robot mode is a mostly yellow and black masculine form with some silver, grey and blue pieces for detailing.

His torso is made of his car hood slit open and rotated to reveal his head, and also featuring several previously hiddenpieces from his vehicle mode (such as his abdomin piece and groin). His car doors and roof are reformed as his now iconic wings in this mode. His head is connected to his torso by a small ball jointed neck piece that allows him to move his head as needed. the head itself is made up mostly of his yellow helmet with chin-strap. This helmet features several ridges and the chin strap covers his mouth (as needed due to his lack of speech), his face is silver and features a sculpted nose and a pair of light-up eyes, which activate thanks to his light piping gimmick.

His arms are connected by a connector and pivot joint combination that uses the front wheels as shoulder pieces, covered by some more previously hiddenpieces. The upper and lower arms are connected by a ball joint each, creating an elbow as well. His lower arms feature holes for his blaster (or any other similar weapon), and the hands themselves are sculpted with fingers and a hidden peg hole for more weapons to be held if needed between the glasping hand, these hands are also able to bend inwards by about 90 degrees if desired.

Bumblebee's legs are connected to his groin by a a pair of pivoting ball joints that allow them to move as needed. His knees are created by a hinge joint, as like Arcee are hidden by a knee pad. The lower legs are mostly made up of the rear of his vehicle mode, including his rear wheels and windows. This of course makes Bumblebee very sound-standing and (shouldn't) fall over that much.

Vehicle Mode

Bumblebee's vehicle mode is a yellow and black sports car designed with a NYC Taxi motif, besides the taxi details this mode differs from the regular Bumblebee in a few ways, such as having a darker yellow and the black stripes being in different locations. His windows and headlights are made of a translucent blue plastic.

This mode also of course features several detailings common on car alternate modes now, such as wheels with hubcaps, eshaust pipes, side mirrors and more.

Accessories

Bumblebee comes with a single blaster that can clip onto his forearm, this seems a bit odd considering that the RID version comes with 2 blasters, one for each arm. This blaster can be stored in vehicle mode on a couple of clips found on the rear of his undercarriage.

My Final Thoughts

Arcee's colourscheme is of course meant to evoke the colours of G1 Arcee as well, whilst Bumblebee is just himself, but with an NYC Taxi design.

It's likely that this toy set influenced an episode in the Prime TV series which was set in New York city and involved Arcee and Bumblebee as well. The only differences though are that the Autobots stay in their normal colourschemes rather than taking on these new ones, Raf didn't go and was replaced by Miko, and they don't wear these different T-Shirts.

I personally really love this set, the alternate colourschemes used can make it very easy to recast these characters as ones other than Arcee and Bumblebee (so people who hate have doubles on characters can be happy too). The only problem you might have with these figures however is managing to find them, due to them being exclusives they're harder to find at a reasonable price on the after-market (I was lucky to find these guys at Auto Assembly 2012 for just £20 for the set though)

So in short, if you can find these guys for a reasonable price, then I'd suggest you buy them, but don't bankrupt yourself getting them, they aren't THAT great.